With its final payment of $696,500 to the Missouri Department of Transportation approved and ready to hand over during a celebration ceremony this summer for the four-laning of Highway 63, the corporation must decide how it wants to proceed with the potential for the group to completely dissolve with at least one highway project still outstanding.

“I would hope we can stay together or some way we can get to Iowa,” said Board Chair Harriet Beard, referring to the “Corridor to the Capitols” with the goal of connecting Des Moines with Jefferson City with a four-laned Highway 63.

The Board met last week and discussed updates to its summer celebration plans as well as its role in the coming years. It had already approved the dissolution of the group at its November meeting, citing a lack of crucial agenda items after the June 5 MoDOT meeting in Kirksville, but renewed talks of instead scaling the corporation back to address transportation needs in the future.

“We need to keep supporting transportation,” said Board treasurer Don Crosby. “We need to continue fighting the good fight and making sure north Missouri doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.”

The group will likely propose a special meeting in late May once it obtains legal guidance over what steps the group would need to take to scale back to a coalition with less stringent meeting requirements and more flexibility in structure.